Konnor On Vince McMahon Wanting The Ascension To Insult Hawk And Legendary WWE Tag Teams
On a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Big Kon (fka Konnor of The Ascension) returned to the podcast to chat with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman. During their conversation, Big Kon explained some of the symbolism The Ascension used WWE as part of their gimmick.
"If you go back and you watch originally with what The Ascension was, with the five of us at one point, I always had The Eye of Ra on my tights because it's a symbol of power, and some people blew it out of proportion," Big Kon recalled. "'Oh, you love Satan and all this stuff,' and I'm like, 'No dude, it's not like that.' I've always loved Egyptian mythology, and I love pyramids.
"It's just something about Egypt in general that I've always been drawn to, and I love The Eye of Ra. It's always been something that I've been fascinated with because of the meaning behind it is power. It's just cool. Now granted, the main roster, they just started throwing, some wild stuff up there. I didn't even see what that entrance looked like, until I came out for the first night, and I was like, 'Oh my God. Oh my God. We're going to hell.'"
In his last appearance on the podcast, Big Kon credited people like Triple H and Dusty Rhodes for helping them succeed in NXT. However, on his recent appearance, he noted how things can change so much on the main roster, using Neville (PAC) as an example.
"A lot of things can change when you go up to the main roster, and a lot of it, you got no say in it for a majority," Big Kon noted. "I remember specifically with Neville, and I like to use Neville too because Neville's an amazing athlete, he's an amazing wrestler. I specifically remember that little period, and if you interview Vic, you can always talk to him about this too, but it was one of those things where it was a weird transitional period where they were just trying to throw gimmicks on people I think.
"It was unnecessary, but then you think about the business aspect of it. If you're looking at action figures, what are you going to buy? When you got guys with pads and paint, to a kid, that looks cool to them. So then you think about the revenue aspect of it. It's been a while since I've been there, but when we were there, there was this disconnect with NXT and WWE at the time, and to this day, we don't know.
"We know creative came up with this process, but we don't know who the hell creative was. You just kind of roll with the punches for the most part because if you don't want to, guess what, there's going to be two other guys that are going to do it."
Hausman asked what Vince McMahon's vision for The Ascension on the main roster was. Big Kon revealed that the idea was simply for them to insult legendary tag teams like Demolition and The Road Warriors. One of Big Kon's lines about The Road Warriors was, 'Oh, what a joke!' He discussed wanting to change the lines and the dynamic of working with the writers.
"Basically, the idea was just a throwback," Big Kon said. "That was his feeling. He wanted the throwback. He wanted us insulting the veterans. That was my shot at Hawk. I tried to have that changed. Part of me wishes I could go back in time, and I wish I could have knocked on that door, but instead, I let the writers do it. You're walking on eggshells. You're not really sure what to do [and] what to say.
"You're still there trying to prove yourself. I remember reading that, and I looked at Vic. And I go, 'Dude, I'm not comfortable with saying this.' First off, I don't feel this way because I've always loved The Road Warriors growing up. I always loved Demolition. I've always loved The Powers of Pain. Hell, I know Warlord personally.
"Our writer came in for that day, and I said, 'Hey listen man, can you see if you can change this because I'm not really comfortable with talking about someone that passed,' and they said, 'Okay.' And they walked out, and 10 minutes later, they came back and said, 'He (McMahon) doesn't want to change it.' So now the question is, did they really because the thing is, a majority of writers don't have the balls to really talk to that man."
Big Kon then expressed his gratitude that he and Vik were able to meet with some of the legends they were made to insult and explain the whole situation to them. He said that they were all understanding, but he admitted that it was tough to apologize for something that they had no power to fix.
"So then part of me wishes, I would have gone back and knocked on that door because I've knocked on that door a few times, but yeah, that's the lowdown of that. That was a tough day for me, and to this day, I was so grateful," Big Kon expressed. "I know Vik and I were so grateful to see Animal before his passing, rest his soul, and we were able to talk to him. And he knew.
"He got it. He understood. He knew that we didn't want to do that, and it's a very humbling experience when you have to sit there. Paul Ellering was the first one I talked to personally face-to-face about it. Mick Foley I had to talk to about it as well. I explained the story a little bit to Mick Foley, and I personally went to a show that my wife was on. And I saw Barb and Warlord, and I talked to them personally and explained everything.
"Then we got to see Demolition not too long ago and we got to talk to them real briefly unfortunately, but to go and have to talk to another grown man and apologize for something that you didn't really have the power to fix, even when you tried, it kind of sucks man."
The Awakening (fka The Ascension) battle The Headbangers for their Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling Tag Team Championships on Friday February 19th. You can fine more info by following ARW on Twitter @WrestlingAtomic.
Konnor's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.